Xiaomi will design own processors for its smartphones

Xiaomi is a phone vendor which is going places, and the latest news on the company is that it intends to start designing and using its own processors in handsets, much like the major players of the smartphone world like Samsung.

Xiaomi is actually the second biggest phone manufacturer in China, ahead of Huawei and only behind Apple in Q1 2015’s figures from IDC, and it has serious plans for expansion to the western world.

EE Times now reports that the firm wants to produce its own processors for phones like the Mi range, according to an exec at Leadcore Technology, the fabless chip outfit which Xiaomi has chosen to partner with in order to more easily realise this ambition. Making its own chips will allow Xiaomi to better tailor them to its phones, and just differentiate its offerings more effectively from the ranks of companies using Qualcomm solutions.

Marshal Cheng, vice president of Leadcore, said that they’d be working with the phone vendor on three levels, “product, technology and patent”. He added: “The modem technology that’s ready in silicon and patent portfolio created by CATT including LTE and LTE-A make us very attractive to Xiaomi.”

CATT is the China Academy of Telecommunication Technology, which founded Datang Telecom, Leadcore’s parent company – and said patents will help shield Xiaomi from potential legal action in the future.

As for those aforementioned expansion plans looking to the west, the first step starts today with dedicated Mi stores opening in the UK, France, Germany and the US, though they’re just selling accessories and the Mi Band for the time being, not phones yet.